Becoming A Catalyst For ChangeSmakprov

YOU CAN DEFEAT PRIDE

Let us understand HUMILITY by defining its opposite, PRIDE. Pride is thinking we can act apart from God; it is thinking we are better than God or acting as if we don’t need God. It is the refusal to acknowledge who we really are in the eyes of God. Psalm 5:4-5 says “the proud may not stand in (his) presence.” We need to defeat pride.

Pride can be thinking that you are more than who you really are.

Like Samson did (Judges 14-16). Sometimes, like Samson, our achievements can get the best of us. We fall for self-dependence and forget to rely on the Lord. Unknowingly, we trade our identity for whatever it is that lures us—ambition, fame, power, lust, and the like. We tend to overestimate ourselves.

On the other hand, pride can also be thinking that you are less than who you really are. Like Gideon this time (Judges 6). Sometimes, we are the ones who disqualify ourselves when God tells us He wants to accomplish something great through us. We say, “I can’t do it,” “I am nobody,” or “I’m too unworthy.” Self-condemnation, false humility, prolonged self-pity—these are manifestations of pride, too.

So, what is humility then? HUMILITY is being who you are in God’s sight. It’s time to REMOVE YOUR MASKS.

Jesus was one who wore no mask. He is exactly as you see Him, no guile, no pretending. When people met Him, they were moved to face themselves. He knew every reason for every mask. He helped them take it off and face the world honestly.

Our attitudes about ourselves are the main source of our pride. These are produced from wrong opinions about us—in our appearance, abilities, parentage, and environment, and it impacts most relationships in our lives. The longer we delay knowing who we really are, the more we will not be sure whether how we live our lives are our mere responses to what people say or are truly the life God wants for us to live, and the lives we ourselves want to live.

The vow of humility starts by being brutally honest with ourselves. Who am I? Who are you?